‘Wild Wonderful Whites’ star arrested

Fred Pace fpace@civitasmedia.com

November 10, 2013

BOONE COUNTY — A star of the 2009 documentary movie “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” was arrested on several charges on Nov. 8, 2013.

Mamie Warner, a.k.a. Mamie White, was booked on charges of first offense driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and assault and battery of a police officer with a weapon.

Warner, 60, was taken to the Southwestern Regional Jail in Holden and placed on a $25,000 bond.

Mamie White is sister of Dancing Outlaw Jesco White and one of the stars of The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.

In it, a crew of documentary filmmakers spent over a year following Jesco White, Mamie, Bo, Kirk, Sue Ann “Sue Bob” and other members and friends of the White family around Boone County. The crew filmed the best and worst moments of the cult figures that have both fascinated and perplexed people throughout the United States for more than 20 years.

In the film Mamie calls herself “the biggest and the meanest and the baddest of all the White family.”

“I’m not happy with the scenes of drug use and neither is Jesco,” Mamie said during an interview with the Coal Valley News in 2009, just prior to the film’s release.

During the interview, Mamie said she tries her best not to give the law any reason to arrest me.

“Attentiveness to traffic laws and avoiding people who are into stuff, and responsibilities to her extended family keeps me out of trouble,” she said back in 2009.

Mamie added that anyone who might be led to believe that the Whites have gotten rich, or even remotely well off from payments from producers of the movie would be shocked to see what little they really received.

“When they came to town they would give us a few hundred dollars and a few quarts of moonshine and take us out to eat at Park Avenue,” she said. “They told me that if the show was successful we would probably end up with a good bit of money, but I will believe it when I see it.”

Mamie continued, “We are the poorest legends in the world. We haven’t gotten enough from Johnny Knoxville to amount to anything.”

She said the family has not even secured legal representation to protect their interests in relation to the movie.

“We could sure use a lawyer to make sure we get all the money that’s due us,” Mamie said. “But do you think any Boone County lawyer is going to represent a bunch of poor Whites?”

She said, for a long time, people have used and abused the White family for nothing.

“They’re not going to trick Mamie White anymore,” she said. “They’re not going to get the better of the Whites ever again.”

Local cultural icon Jesco White, who has appeared in other documentaries, the first being the PBS documentary called “The Dancing Outlaw,” television shows, including the “Squidbillies” and “Roseanne,” as well as rock and country music videos.